"3 Leaf Systems introduces virtualization manager" by drcrane

Sun, 6 May 2007 15:37:00 EDT

3 Leaf Systems recently introduced their V-8000 Virtual I/O server. The product “replaces each compute node’s storage and network I/O with a single, high speed, redundant, and fault tolerant fabric, converting each compute node into a diskless and stateless commodity server with centrally managed bandwidth”.

Not a lot of information is publicly available (whitepapers are available on request), here’s a summary of what I’ve gathered:

all network and SAN I/O goes through central virtual I/O server
compute nodes and VIO server are interconnected with a 10Gb fabric (infiniband or ethernet)
consolidates 4-18 gigE network ports and 0-14 4Gb fibrechannel ports
VIO server runs RHEL4, 64-bit
compute nodes can run RHEL, SLES or Windows (limited versions, 32-bit and 64-bit)
in addition to the base operating systems (above) compute nodes can further virtualize things by running virtualization software including those based on VMware, Xen, and Microsoft technology

It is recommended to run the VIO servers in redundant pairs (no kidding!).

Sounds like an interesting solution. Check out their press releases here and the product datasheet.

Linux Virtualization comments on 3 Leaf Systems introduces virtualization manager

"3 Leaf Systems introduces virtualization manager" by drcrane